Date: Second Week – Academy Joining Exam, Survival Week
We were told to arrive at dawn.
No spells. No weapons. No instructions beyond this:
"Survive. Learn. Endure. And return."
The forest that would become our battlefield stretched endlessly, ancient and indifferent. The Academy called it "training." The trees called it something else: judgment.
Day 1
By noon, three students cried from frustration. One punched a tree. One tried to sneak food and got caught by the patrolling golem. I observed from a ridge, noting patterns — who grouped by panic, who by logic, and who by hunger.
That's when I saw her.
Silver hair, moonlit gaze, calm like a winter lake.
She moved without fear. Alone. She did not seek allies. She did not need them.
She wasn't just skilled. She was dangerous in a way that made the forest watch her.
I would learn her name later: Lily.
Day 2
Anna tried to boil river water. It exploded.
Riya accidentally turned the ground beneath her into quicksand.
Leander? He was already sunburned and telling jokes to frogs.
They hadn't met yet, but each would later become pieces on my board.
That day, a food cache was hidden beneath monster territory.
Three groups fought over it.
I didn't fight.
I moved before they noticed, scattered the cache, and took only what I needed.
By nightfall, five students left the forest voluntarily.
Day 3
Whispers of alliances rose — and fell.
Some fought over dried bread.
Some wept from isolation.
And in the middle of it, Lily broke an illusion trap with a flick of her hand.
She was supposed to be new.
She shattered a summoned beast with a moonlit barrier.
Even the sky went quiet.
The teachers watching from afar began to murmur.
Day 4
I heard screams from the west. Anna.
She'd gotten into a shouting match with a brute who called her a "parlor mage."
She threw illusions like daggers. But her aim wasn't just to wound. It was to destroy.
It was Riya who doused the fire she started.
That was the first time I saw them together.
Day 5
The golems arrived.
Not gentle. Not "educational."
They tested reflexes. Strategy. Magic under stress.
Many failed.
I didn't.
That night, I saw Lily again. She was sitting beneath a dead tree, hands folded in her lap, blood on her sleeves — not hers. She looked like something out of a forgotten myth.
We didn't speak. But for a moment, I think she sensed me.
Day 6
Leander stumbled into my camp — half-burned cloak, laughing.
"I made an enemy," he said, grinning, "and a stew. Not sure which will kill me first."
We shared the stew.
Day 7
Final day.
Half the examinees had fled.
A few tried to ambush me.
They failed.
When the horns blew to end the week, I stood with food reserves, a map, and notes on every participant I deemed worthy.
The professors were silent when I walked out.
But one of them whispered, "He didn't just survive — he studied us."
And then, I saw her again.
Lily stepped out, moonlight painting her hair like frost.
She wasn't smiling.
But her eyes met mine — and something passed between us.
Recognition.
Two pieces on the same board.
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